West Chester Chess Club News
To see all swiss and quad results, visit this USCF page.
Feb 23 - Donald Anderson
Final results of the GAP tournament on its USCF Events page
Feb 23 - Ed Synder
The WCCC Championship came to an end last night with the two remaining make-up games being played.
Denis Markov beat Jim Larsen to secure a clear second place.
Nate Bryans and Ed Kline drew their game.
Both games were played with the same intensity as if this was game one of the tournament.
This was a terrific tournament which included three players that have never been in the Championship previously. Perhaps next year we will have other new players in the tournament. That is one thing that makes it even more exciting each year.
Starting next week the race begins for those coveted eight slots. Everyone in the club is eligible to make it to the top eight, but you must play in the Open Section. The easy part is showing up frequently and the harder part is getting enough points to qualify.
Good luck to everyone.
Final results of the Club Championship on its USCF Event page
Feb 18 - Donald Anderson
Gap Round 2 Results:
Feb 17 - Ed Snyder
CONGRATULATIONS TO JOE MUCERINO WHO CLINCHED THE TITLE OF 2023 WCCC CHAMPION.
Joe drew his game last night with Nick Chirstofides to go undefeated against some extremely talented and strong players finishing with a 5-0-2 record. I'm not sure if anyone has completed the club championship with no losses. Great achievement, Joe.
There are two make-up games next week and there is no reason to think that they will be just as interesting as all the games have been so far.
Congratulations are also in order for the other seven members who made it to the Championship. That in itself is an achievement. After next week's games the race for the next Championship begins and everyone that plays in the Open Section has a chance of getting into it.
Feb 10 - Bob Flanagan
The club player match results have been updated for the latest results in the Gap Tournament and the Club Championship.
Feb 10 - Donald Anderson
Gap Tournament results - The Gap is a 3-week event and then everyone will come back together for the start the new chess year. Here is the results from last night.
Gap Open Standings. Round one match results:
Gap U1600 Standings. Round one match results:
Feb 10 - Ed Synder
Here are the results and standings after last night's games. Three more players have lost the possibility of winning the title., but still can spoil those left.
Joe Mucerino beat Nate Bryans in a game that had a very tough, to me, endgame. Joe is still undefeated and only Denis Markov remains to catch him for a possible tie for the crown. Nate's loss knock him out of winning the championship.
Denis beat Nick Christofides which drops Nick out of the running.
Ed Kline won his game with Aaron Biscoe for his first win.
Greg Nolan beat Jim Larsen, but Greg is also mathematically eliminated.
From what I've seen the majority of these games could have gone either way. Many have been extremely close.
Feb 10 - Jim Larsen
Feb 6 - Bob Flanagan
The match results between club players (along with the latest USCF ratings) have been updated for YTD 2023 matchs.
Feb 6 - Aaron Biscoe
The West Chester Chess Club has updated it's vaccination policy.
We are no longer requiring vaccination to attend and play.
We are asking that you let the TD know if you are unvaccinated so anyone uncomfortable playing someone who is unvaxed can opt for a bye
Feb 3 - Ed Snyder
Because I think this is the most competitive Championship we've had, at least in my recollection, I've been surprised that there have been no draws. Well, that changed last night with two games being drawn.
Joe Mucerino is still alone in first place and is still undefeated, but he drew his game with Denis Markov. Denis was down to 26 seconds and had a rook and two pawns against Joe's rook and one pawn. Incredible finish with Joe down to a minute and change.
The other draw was between Nick Christofides and Ed Kline. Their game was down to a Kings and pawns ending with neither being able to secure an advantage.
Greg Nolan managed to beat Aaron Biscoe in another tough battle.
And, Nate Bryans managed to pick up another win against Jim Larsen.
Until last night everyone was still in the running, but now, mathematically, Jim Larsen, Aaron Biscoe, and Ed Kline are out of the running. Any of them can still spoil someone's chances. It remains as interesting as ever.
Feb 3 - Jim Larsen
Great games last night. Mucerino-Markov was extremely well played by both players.
Feb 3 - Sean Pry
Please see the following results of the West Chester Reserve Championship & U1600 section.
The West Chester chess club Reserve Champion is Andrew Fleming! Andrew is clear first with a score of 4.5/5. Notably, Andrew had a victory over former club champion Kevin Chen that helped secure his tournament lead.
The winner of the U1600 section is club newcomer, Will Sadler! Will scored 4.5/5, with 4 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses.
Following this tournament we will be running the 3 round 'Gap Swiss'. While we wait for the club championship to conclude, we will play a small 3 round tournament directed by Donald Anderson.
Donald shared with me that he will pair the tournament in the following manner:
>Board 1: Player 1 v Player 2
>Board 2: Player 3 v Player 4
>Board 3: Player 5 v Player 6
Sorted by their USCF rating. Frankly, I don't know if there's a name for this style of pairing.Welcome to all the newcomers we have in the new year and I'll see you next Thursday!
Jan 27 - Sean Pry
Here are the results from round 4 of the Reserve Swiss! Next is the final round of the tournament after which we will have a Reserve Champ and U1600 Champ!
The main club championship has 4 more rounds to go and during that time we will be running the 'Gap Swiss', a shorter tournament to fill the time between the conclusion of the reserve and club championship. Donald Anderson will be the tournament director and he shared with me that he plans on shaking up the pairing system a little bit for fun.
Have a great weekend! And see you next time.
Jan 27 - Ed Snyder, Jim Larsen
The following are the results and standings after last night's games. All were interesting and competitive. In my opinion this year's championship is the most competitive one we've had. Everyone is well matched.
0 BRYANS MARKOV 1
0 KLINE MUCERINO 1
0 NOLAN CHRISTOFIDES 1
1 LARSEN BISCOE 0
Joe Mucerino managed to fork Ed Kline's king and rook in their game. Ed resigned at this point and judging by his reaction he seemed totally caught off guard by this move. As a result Joe remains undefeated at 4 and 0.
Nick Christofides won over Greg Nolan and is keeping pace with Joe with 3 and 1. Their game should prove very interesting, which will be played on February 16.
Jim Larsen picked up his first win beating Aaron Biscoe. At one point Jim had two rooks, two knights, and one bishop against Aaron's two rooks. Aaron still played on forcing Jim to work a little to finally use the knights to form a mating net.
Denis Markov won over Nate Bryans in a very long struggle that seemed very close.
Three games and two make-ups remain. It's going to be fun.
Jan 20 - Ed Snyder
Last night's four games were all interesting and a couple were downright shootouts right to the end.
Joe Mucerino beat Greg Nolan and is the only undefeated player remaining in the Championship.
Aaron Biscoe managed to beat Nate Bryans in a real nail biter that went to the wire. Nate was able to hold his clock at 14 seconds for several moves before running out of time. Talk about using all your time, last week he had 8 seconds left when Nick Christofides resigned.
Nick was able to finally win over Jim Larsen in another nail biter that saw Nick with about two minutes and change to Jim's more than 20. When Nick mated Jim each had only seconds remaining. This was the last game to finish at 11:15.
Amazing how chess players can keep their focus for so long during such a tough mental struggle.
More next week.
2023 WCCC CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS & STANDINGS
JOE MUCERINO 3 3-0-0 1.000
GREG NOLAN 2 2-1-0 .666
NICK CHRISTOFIDES 2 2-1-0 .666
DENIS MARKOV 1 1-1-0 .500
NATE BRYANS 1 1-1-0 .500
AARON BISCOE 1 1-2-0 .333
JIM LARSEN 0 0-2-0 .000
ED KLINE 0 0-2-0 .0001 BISCOE BRYANS 0
1 CHRISTOFIDES LARSEN 0
1 MUCERINO NOLAN 0
1 MARKOV KLINE 0
Jan 13 - Ed Snyder, Jim Larsen
WCCC 2023 Club Championship standings - Three more exciting games last night in the quest for this year's club champion. All were interesting and exciting and could have gone either way. It is said that chess is not a spectator sport, but I may have to disagree with that statement.
Here are the results and standings. Ed Kline and Nate Bryans had to postpone their game.
Jan 13 - Sean Pry
Round 2 results of the Reserve Swiss
Jan 6 - Ed Synder
Two of the first games in the WCCC Championship went down to the wire last night and were among the last to finish.
Aaron and Joe played a long and tough game that I think could have gone either way for a long time. In an ending with only a rook and several pawns each Joe finally got the advantage and won. Aaron was down to a minute and change and Joe had around six or seven minutes remaining. Very interesting to watch.
Nick and Nate played an incredible game that also could have gone either way with Nick finally resigning. Nick had four seconds remaining and Nate had eight.
Both of these games were difficult and hard fought by all four players.
Ed and Greg were finished early with Grey winning. I didn't get to see much of it but am sure it was equally tense and hard fought.
The game between Denis and Jim was postponed.
More great games in this struggle for the club Championship next week.
Jan 6 - Jim Larsen
Jan 3, 2023 - Bob Flanagan
The club member and matches page has been updated to have all matches for the year.